Ryan Tedder Thinks Sports Fandom Needs an Upgrade. He’s Putting His Money Behind a Fix

Ryan Tedder has spent much of his career figuring out how to turn casual listeners into lifelong fans. Now, the OneRepublic frontman and Grammy-winning songwriter is betting that the same thinking can unlock a major opportunity in professional sports.

Tedder is an investor in Jump, a fast-growing fan engagement platform founded by serial entrepreneur Mark Lore and backed by retired baseball player Alex Rodriguez that aims to deepen relationships between teams and fans through a unified, team-branded app. The platform integrates ticketing, merchandise, concessions, seat upgrades and personalized experiences — all designed to help teams better understand, engage and monetize their most loyal supporters.

“When I saw the problem they were solving, it made all the sense in the world,” Tedder says. “My entire life outside of writing songs is about understanding fandom and how to super-serve fans. Sports teams, historically, don’t do that very well.”

Jump, which is already working with the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves, allows fans to order food from their seats, manage tickets, buy merch and even receive real-time notifications offering seat upgrades during games — a level of flexibility Tedder says mirrors the evolution of fan experiences in music.

“One of my favorite features is getting a notification five minutes into a game saying, ‘Courtside seats just opened up — do you want to upgrade?’” Tedder says. “You tap your phone and suddenly you’re courtside. That just doesn’t happen in a normal sports experience.”

Tedder’s interest in Jump came through Lore, whose previous ventures include Jet.com and leading Walmart’s e-commerce strategy. Tedder invested shortly after the company’s early launch, following a long phone call that sealed his conviction.

“Part of my investment philosophy is betting on the jockey and the horse,” Tedder says. “Mark has built billion-dollar companies before. I believe in the team as much as the opportunity.”

What ultimately sold him was the size of the unmet need. Tedder says he spoke with longtime season-ticket holders across multiple leagues — including the NBA, NFL and MLB — asking what teams truly knew about them beyond their seats and parking passes.

“The answer was basically nothing,” he says. “Beyond tickets, food and maybe a VIP lounge, there’s no deeper relationship. That’s wild when you compare it to music.”

In touring, Tedder notes, artists routinely layer experiences on top of concerts — meet-and-greets, soundcheck access, exclusive merch drops and surprise moments that create lasting memories and incremental revenue. Sports, despite having more frequent touchpoints across a season, have largely failed to replicate that model. 

“There’s a massive delta between how passionate fans are and how they’re treated,” he says. “That entire gap is what Jump is designed to fill.”

Tedder describes Jump as a “one-stop shop” that allows teams to communicate directly with fans rather than relying on fragmented third-party systems.

“A good analogy is Shopify,” he says. “Shopify lets brands have a direct relationship with consumers. Jump does that for sports teams. You’re not dealing with a middleman — you’re dealing directly with the team you love.”

Jump is a full-service ticketing system that competes with the likes of Ticketmaster and AXS, and Tedder notes the company is designed to build a data-driven relationship that benefits both fans and franchises.

The platform’s success with the Timberwolves has already attracted interest from other teams across leagues, according to Tedder, though he declined to name those partners ahead of official announcements.

Tedder’s perspective is shaped by decades inside the music business, where fan engagement has become increasingly sophisticated. He points to K-pop as a prime example of how fandom — not just music — drives global success.

“It’s not just the songs,” he says. “It’s the fandom. It’s understanding your audience and creating experiences that feel personal and special.”

He sees similar potential in sports, from VIP travel experiences to team-specific fan activations that could be tested by one franchise and then adopted league-wide.

“Think about how ideas spread between teams,” Tedder says. “One team does something incredible, it goes viral, and suddenly everyone wants to copy it. Jump gives teams the infrastructure to experiment.”

For Tedder, Jump represents a rare convergence of business, technology and culture — one that feels overdue.

“I walked out of a concert thinking about all the special things we did for fans that day,” he recalls. “A week later, I was at a sporting event and realized nothing about the experience was different from any other game I’d ever attended.”

He pauses. “That’s when it really clicked. This is a massive opportunity — and we’ve only scratched the surface.”